Miscellaneous Musing #15

Does this make sense to you? In 1853, part of Oregon was organized as a separate territory, which its inhabitants proposed to call Columbia, after the River; the US Congress rejected the name, for fear of confusion with the District of Columbia. (It’s bad enough to have so much confusion in the District, specifically the Capitol.) The denizens therefore chose a new name, which the Congress accepted: Washington, which was already being used for the city that occupies the District of Columbia. In my opinion, this is so inane that one would expect it to have happened in our century.